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What’s better? Building your app in-House or Outsourcing it to a Mobile App Development Company

More than 95% of Fortune 500 companies have adopted enterprise mobile apps and are investing in building mobility solutions. Mobile apps in business world seem to pose explosive growth in consumer technology market. Developing a mobile app needs significant amount of investment and time. The biggest decision to make is whether to outsource the work or build it in-house.

Many companies are affected by the dilemma of in-house vs outsource, especially when it comes to mobile app development. Both in-house and outsourcing approaches have their own pros and cons.

In this post, I will help you know the pros and cons of both these approaches and how to select the right one that meet your business requirements.

In-house mobile app development

Many companies are trying hard to build mobile apps in-house, believing that it is highly cost-effective and controlled. However, it is not as easy as they think. Though the in-house team is controlled by the parent company — they may not be able to look after the development operations as per their choice. This option is ideal for large companies, but they have to make it a long term strategy to succeed.

Pros of in-house app development

Large companies can set aside the required resources in terms of time and money for in-house team. The main advantages of building an in-house app are as below.

1.) Building an app in-house will give you complete control over the project in terms of scope.

2.) The internal team knows the company and its policies in a better way, and cutting out the learning curve will inevitably go through.

3.) In-house projects can be have faster sign-off cycle, as the concerning parties are in one location. A team of in-house specialists will contribute to a long term strategy of organization through innovative use of mobile technology.

Cons of in-house app development

There is a steep moving curve from web developing to mobile developing. If your company is planning for in-house app development, then you should know that there are a few drawbacks too.

1.) In-house app development involves high setup cost including – training, recruitment, licenses, infrastructure cost and many more, which is often followed by permanent overheads.

2.) Lack of expertise in the in-house team can be associated with additional costs and time delays. Hiring team of specialists could mean spending huge amount of time and money.The in-house team has to negotiate a lot regarding internal policies that can stifle the creativity of the project. The flexibility with revisions could mean countless modifications, which can further delay the project.

3.)Recruiting the right mix of talent and mobile experience is very time consuming, and it is something that organizations should really think of. It really matters a lot for companies, especially if they want to deploy mobile apps to users in short period.

Outsourcing mobile app development

Handing the mobile app development project to a professional company is no doubt a wise step. If you want to develop an app by saving time and money, outsourcing app development is the best option. Entrusting the app development to a specialist agency is right for those organizations that don’t have time and money to spend on building an in-house team.

Pros of outsourcing app development

Outsourcing mobile app development will give you a better product without spending much time and money. Below are some of the benefits of outsourcing app development.

1.) Outsourcing ensures that the time spent between customer brief and project start is quite crucial, especially if you need to market the app fast. The cost of project is fixed and hence you can stay ensured that the customer is in control of the budget. There is only a little risk with development as all the variables related to the project are agreed upfront.

2.) Mobile app development agencies look into emerging technologies and ways to harness them. This makes them more creative and well informed when offering best possible solution for the budget. This gives your customer a competitive advantage.

3.) Mobile app development agencies provide end-to-end service staring from the idea of mobile app till customer support. This allows customers to explore mobile app space in a safe environment.

4.) A professional mobile app development agency will give you a robust contract along with great scope of work. If any mistake or delay occurs while working on the app, you will have a dedicated representative that can help you overcome the challenges.

The decision of app development comes down to cost and risk. Companies that are under intense pressure need to maintain competitive presence in mobile space. It is natural that companies want to keep mobile app development in-house. However, it doesn’t make the best business sense.

Cons of outsourcing app development

The burgeoning mobile app development industry provides great potential for companies to grow their business. App development firms provide end-to-end services in a protected environment till they find a niche that works for them.

However, there are a few drawbacks of outsourcing app development.

1.) Even though you are the owner of mobile app, you won’t have complete control over the project. Moreover, you are relying on a third party to create something that could form core of its business operations

2.) It takes time for even the best app development agencies to get to know the ethos, policies, vision and brand of your organization. Moreover, they offer a limited number of revisions for free.

3.) The scope will result in further changes that are ideally based on hourly rate (agreed before). If the initial client specifications are poorly defines, it will escalate the cost of project. The app development project management process need the use of software, which the customer is not familiar with.

Time to decide

For most of the organizations, the final decision is based on project time sensitivity, combination of cost, risk attitude and many other factors. What is right for your organization might not be right for others. It depends on company, long-term strategy, ease of access to the resources and many other factors. If the in-house app development is the right choice for your organization, then you need to ensure that the products you develop are at highest quality.

It is easy to say that only the largest of organizations that plan to integrate mobile at the heart of future growth strategy will take the risks that are associated with such an undertaking. Being an experienced mobile app development company, we always advice you to start your mobile app development journey with the simplest possible version.

When choosing between in-house app development and outsourcing app development, it is clear from the above comparison that outsourcing is more cost-effective and makes much sense. But, again it depends on factors like – size of your company, time frame to release the app, your budget etc.

If you are still not sure about what’s better, our team can help you with. Stay in touch with us and get benefitted from our in depth knowledge of technologies.

Rahul has been associated with the apps industry for more than 7 years now. He has seen the apps economy grow from its nascent days to a full fledged industry with its complete ecosystem as of today. His interest lies in pursuing and getting to know the best app development technologies, processes and platforms. He is truly an app enthusiast. In his free time he loves playing console games and reading history.

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About Promatics

Promatics is an ISO 9001:2008 certified offshore web and mobile application development company with a strong team of 100+ highly skilled IT experts delighting SMEs across USA, Europe and APAC. Our services and solutions help clients to achieve tangible business value and remain competitive in today’s evolving marketplaces.